By MARK MOLINA | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
HARLINGEN — The District 32-6A meet will get going Friday morning in Los Fresnos and after a couple of dominating performances this weekend, some of the league’s contenders now have some added momentum on their side.
The Harlingen High boys looked untouchable, Rivera’s Andrea de la Rosa cruised to another individual victory and the Hanna girls soared during HCISD Invitational on Saturday morning at a muddy, wet Harlingen Sports Complex.
A trio of Cardinals swept the top three individual spots on the boys side as Edward Ramos finished with a personal-best time of 16 minutes, 00.28 seconds, followed by Fern Escobar (16.00.44)and Arturo Escobar (16.16).
San Benito’s Joaquin Medina (16:23) finished fourth and Weslaco’s Tony Sanchez (16:34) rounded out the top five.
“It was tiring and there were some muddy spots, sharp turns with muddy spots, which was difficult, too” Ramos said. “I managed to pull through it. I PRed and i feel pretty confident about district. I’m waiting for district to come and I hope it goes good.”
The Cards finished first as a team with 29 points, followed by Weslaco High (107), Edinburg Vela (116), San Benito (117) and Brownsville Veterans Memorial (131).
Harlingen coach Efrain Ambriz believes his squad is peaking at the right time.
“When it comes to the end of the season, we always want to be running our best,” Ambriz said. “We’re doing that and come Friday, we hope to continue that momentum to district, regionals and hopefully, state.”
Rivera’s de la Rosa once again blew away the girls division, finishing the race with a time of 19:28.
While de la Rosa has cruised to multiple victories, the Rivera junior said that Saturday was a good run on a familiar course and has no intention of declaring herself a district champion just yet.
“I’ve known this course for three years already and i feel it’s one of the easier courses in cross country,” de la Rosa said. “There are really great runners (competing). I’m saying it gives me (a lot) of confidence (for district), but it does give me a little bit because anything can happen. It’s not all a given —I still need to work hard for it.”
Hanna’s Cecilia Telles finished second with a time of 19:49, followed by Harlingen’s Michelle Medina (20:39) in third, Hanna’s Scarlet Salazar (20:40) in fourth and San Benito’s Monica Hernandez (20:58) in fifth .
The Hanna girls finished with four girls in the top 10 and five in the top 17, running away with the meet title with 40 points.
“Overall, I’m really happy because these girls have improved their time because that’s what we’re trying to work with right now,” Hanna head coach Olaya Teran said. “We’re trying to improve our time and go into district with positive notes. Hopefully for district, they improve those times a little bit more.”
Edinburg North (90) finished second, San Benito (102) finished third, Brownsville Veterans (132) finished fourth and Donna High (184) finished fifth.